Welcome to Tradesmith
Thank you for visiting this baseline version of our website.
This site was started in Q2 of 2023 - a very late start so we have a lot of content to add for full coverage of our engineered solutions which started BEFORE the internet. As a matter of fact - our start coincides with the Macintosh's start - 1984!
Transmission Trash !!
The infamous automatic transmission
HARSH SHIFT,
JERKING-SHUTTERING
and then the...
CLANG - BANG - engine rev w/o motion!
2007 to 2023+
1995 to 2004
Ugly Vehicle
Perfect Fit & Finish
The perfectly PARALLEL GAP between the fender and the bumper fascia is not by accident. This is NOT a unitized body. This is a body-on-frame vehicle!
Transmission Shutter & Harsh Shifts:
Transmission Shutter & Harsh Shifts:
The harsh and jerking-shuttering shifts started with the 6-speed transaxle transmission designed by two (2) large car companies. Sadly, the same flaw has been carried into the 8-speed, 9-speed, and now the 10-speed transmission.
The roadside failure mode is horrific when the harsh or jerking-shuttering shift ends with a loud bang and loss of forward or reverse motion - at this point the 3-5-R hub, wave plate, and many other pieces have been shredded and are laying in the bottom of your transmission. This scenario is repairable - if the broken pieces become lodged in the wrong places, irrepairable damage can also occur due to broken transmission case castings.
This EXACT failure mode is 100% avoidable with a minor change to one simple component part. This design arrived in the public for the 2007 models in various vehicles but two (2) examples of the form factors are the 6T70 & 6T75 transmission. Fast forward to 2023 and the problem continues with components similar to the "3-5-R" Wave Plate but different prefix names for the Wave Plate are assigned based on the gear combinations served.
*** Fit & Finish ***
*** Fit & Finish ***
The concept of "Fit & Finish" is rarely expected where body components are to be matched to frame components.
Although the styling of the pictured vehicle is far from remarkable, the parallel gap between the bumper fascia and the bottom feature line of the fender truly IS REMARKABLE. This is especially true when the original tolerance stack-up started at +/- 5.0mm. The product engineer wanted to achieve +/- 0.5mm - a massive 10x difference!
A complete RESET of the manufacturing process had to be implemented. Fortunately, we got involved during the product concept phase so not a single piece of tooling was developed - not even designed until the "workable" manufacturing process was adopted. The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) was bought off at +/- 0.25mm. Just as significant was a labor savings since three (3) assembly plants running two (2) shifts were able to eliminate the operators which had been planned to assemble the shoulder bolt mounting hardware which was originally planned for the final assembly.
The solution to the tolerance stack-up was to "hot upset" (hot rivet) a shoulder stud to an originally planned reinforcement bracket which was going to have a threaded weld nut receive a threaded shoulder bolt in final assembly at the assembly plant. The (riveted) stud/bracket sub-assembly eliminated all of the tolerance "stack-ups" and was spotwelded on slip plane flanges relative to the fender feature line during the fabrication phase of the FINAL inner to outer fender assembly. The tolerance goal of +/- 0.5mm was easily achieved. The actual production data never deviated beyond +/- 0.25mm.
Engineering: Mechanical, Mfg., & Industrial
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